A Short History of English Versification. By Max Kaluza Translated
by A. C. Dunstan. (George Allen and Co. 5s. net.)— This volume is a good example of what is generally understood by German scholarship. It presents an elaborate historical analysis of English prosody, and nearly three quarters of it are occupied by Old English and Middle English. It is extremely painstaking and very learned, but the light that it throws on any of the really interesting problems of versification is infinitesimal. Professor Kaluza is in this respect an almost perfect antithesis to Professor Saintsbury, to whose work upon the same subject we are surprised to find that no reference is made. Professor Kaluza appears to regard prosody as an entirely independent science, which bears no relation whatever to the subject-matter which forms its substance. So far as we have been able to discover, he never once considers the possible effect that the sense and feeling of a poem must have upon its prosody. The fact is, of course, that matter and form in verse are inextricably intertwined. To attempt, as Professor Kaluza does, to treat the form as a separate entity has the effect of making the whole subject seem abstract and dead.
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